Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday said that under his watch as the Nigeria\u2019s Head of State, the late United States President Jimmy Carter would not do anything in Africa without his knowledge, a statement which appeared to be a veiled remark on the ongoing controversy over President Donald Trump\u2019s military invasion threat against the country.<\/p>\n
Daily Trust reports that in a series of posts on X between October 31 and November 1, Trump had condemned continued killings in Nigeria, declaring America\u2019s readiness to send its military to Nigeria if the Federal Government failed to stop the killings by jihadist groups.<\/p>\n
His position had sparked divergent reactions from both the Federal Government and prominent Nigerian leaders and religious organizations in past weeks.<\/p>\n
The federal government particularly rejected Trump\u2019s allegations, insisting that the country\u2019s insecurity affects all religious groups.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Monday in Abeokuta, Ogun State, during the Presidential Youth Mentorship Retreat (6.0) organised by the Youth Development Centre, an arm of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Obasanjo did not make a direct remark on the ongoing controversy, but he tactfully recalled how the US under Carter held Nigeria in high esteem.<\/p>\n
Obasanjo and Cater, who died recently in December 2024, were regarded as best of friends.<\/p>\n
In January this year, Obasanjo held a memorial service in Abeokuta in honour of Carter, where he paid glowing tributes to the late US President who died at age 100.<\/p>\n
According to Obasanjo, right from independence, the world and indeed America saw Nigeria as Africa\u2019s leader, saying the country lost the confidence at some point before the Murtala-Obasanjo military regime \u201cbrought it back. \u201c<\/p>\n
Going down memory lane, Obasanjo said Cater as the US President would not do anything on African soil without informing the Nigerian government when he was Head of State.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were not taking permission from us, but they would tell us that \u2018they are doing this,\u2019\u201d Obasanjo recalled.<\/p>\n
He said \u201cWhen I was president and Head of State, three American presidents came to Nigeria. They have not lost anything that they were looking for in Nigeria. What did they see? At Independence, the world saw Nigeria as a giant coming up. Soon after independence, we lost that. When Murtala and I came into government, we brought it back.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Americas saw that there was a possibility of Nigeria being Africa\u2019s leader and we were on the way. When I was military head of state, President Jimmy Carter was the president of America, he would not do anything in Africa without informing us. They are not taking permission from us, but they will tell us that \u2018they are doing this.\u2019<\/p>\n
He also recalled that a couple of the then under 40 military leaders, including himself, were always driven by the belief that Africa and Nigeria must be liberated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were young. We were idealistic, and we knew what we wanted for Nigeria. It was not about money. We were young, we were all under 40, all of us. We were probably a bit na\u00efve too. But our ambition is not money,\u201d Obasanjo said.<\/p>\n
Daily Trust reports that the retreat with the theme \u201cAfrica and the Conflicts in Europe and the Middle East\u201d, attracted participating youths from across Nigeria and parts of other African nations.<\/p>\n
During the mentorship session, Obasanjo challenged African youths to be positively disruptive in order to take their rightful positions in leadership across the continent.<\/p>\n
Citing examples of sit-tight syndrome in Africa, Obasanjo told the youths to see themselves as leaders of today and not leaders of tomorrow.<\/p>\n
He said \u201cYou are leaders of today because if you leave tomorrow in the hands of leaders who are there today, they will destroy it, you won\u2019t have your tomorrow. You can see that happening almost everywhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cCameroon just had an election. My brother, Paul Biya is 92. So, what are you going to do with the youths, or are there no youths in Cameroon?<\/p>\n
\u201cHere (referring to Nigeria), we have NotTooYoungToRun and they even made it into law. Those who made it into law are 80 years old and they are still running. When will you have the opportunity to run? Like I said to you yesterday, you have to be positively disruptive and I mean that.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, if three people are sitting and two of them start to press the one in the middle, when it becomes uncomfortable for him, it is either he yields the space or allows them to share. You have to be positively disruptive; otherwise, you will have no role to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
He further asked youths to leverage their population to take over leadership positions.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have the number, but the number will only matter when you use the number to your advantage,\u201d Obasanjo said.<\/p>\n
The elder statesman, however, expressed concern that some youths in the government have \u201cnot proven that youths can be absolutely trusted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since Obasanjo left power, no US President has stepped his feet on Nigerian soil.<\/p>\n
\u25cf By Daily Trust<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday said that under his watch as the Nigeria\u2019s Head of State, the late United States President Jimmy Carter would not do anything in Africa without his knowledge, a statement which appeared to be a veiled remark on the ongoing controversy over President Donald Trump\u2019s military invasion threat against the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":92291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[6920,440,577,1358],"class_list":["post-95953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-carter","tag-obasanjo","tag-us","tag-visit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/92291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}